--- title: "Security and access — who can read your team’s messages" description: "Who can see the messages in your shared inbox, how you give and remove access, what is kept and for how long, and what we do not claim. In plain English." canonical: "https://sharedsmsinbox.com/security" --- # Share the messages without sharing a password > Who can see the messages in your shared inbox, how you give and remove access, what is kept and for how long, and what we do not claim. In plain English. These messages matter, so it should be obvious who can read them, easy to change your mind, and clear what happens to a message once it has been read. - [Get your number](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com) - [Create free account](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com) _No credit card required. Pay only when you choose your number._ ## Access is a list of named people, not a password The whole model is one idea: a person can read a number’s messages because you said they could, and you can stop saying so at any time. - **Everyone signs in as themselves** — There is no team login and no shared password, so there is nothing to circulate and nothing to reset when the team changes. - **Being on the team is not the same as seeing a number** — Access to each number is given per person. A colleague can be part of your team and still see nothing of a number you have not given them. - **Administrators can see every number on the team** — That is what makes them administrators. Keep the administrator list short, and give everyone else only the numbers they need. _(If two groups should not read each other’s messages, a second number keeps them apart properly.)_ - **Access can be removed, and it stops immediately** — An administrator removes a person’s access and they can no longer open the messages. Nobody else is affected and no password needs changing. - **A message nobody has access to is not shown to anybody** — Someone without access does not get a “you cannot see this” message either. As far as their account is concerned, it is not there. ## What happens to a message ### How long are messages kept? The text of a message, and any code inside it, is permanently erased a set time after it arrives — 72 hours by default, and an administrator can change that. ### Can we tell who read a message? Yes, for the actions that matter: opening a message, copying a code, and every change to who has access is written down and can be reviewed by an administrator. ### What happens when someone leaves the company? An administrator removes them, their access ends on their next action, and the number and its messages stay exactly where they are. The erasure cannot be undone. It is deliberate: a login code is useful for a few minutes and a liability for the rest of its life, so the product does not keep one lying around. What stays is the record that the message arrived — who sent it, when, and which of your numbers it came to. Your team can still see the history of what happened without the codes themselves still being readable. The record cannot be edited or deleted from inside the product — it only ever gets added to. That is the point of having one. It covers access being given and taken away, people being added and removed, numbers being added and released, and messages being opened and their codes copied. Because the number belongs to the company account rather than to a person, nothing has to be recovered, re-registered or moved. The accounts that text that number carry on working. This is the single largest practical difference between a company number and an employee’s mobile. See [shared phone number for teams](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/shared-phone-number-for-teams). ## What we do not claim Plenty of products in this space say things that sound reassuring and mean very little. Here is what we are deliberately not saying. **We do not claim that this makes text messages more secure.** It does not. A code sent by text is exactly as strong as it was before; what changes is who can act on it and how quickly. Where a service can give each of your employees their own login, that is better than sharing anything. Where it supports an authenticator app or a security key, those are generally regarded as stronger than SMS. **We do not use words like bank-grade, military-grade or unhackable.** They have no agreed meaning and no test behind them. **We do not claim your messages are encrypted in a way that stops us reading them.** They are not. The service has to be able to show you the message, so it can read the message. Anyone evaluating this for genuinely sensitive material should factor that in. **We do not promise that every service will accept your number.** That is decided by the service sending the text, and it can change without notice. Test the number on an account before you rely on it. ## Four things worth doing on your side Most of what goes wrong with shared access is housekeeping rather than technology. - **Keep the administrator list short.** Administrators see every number. Most people do not need to be one. - **Give access per number, not by habit.** If somebody only works on the advertising account, give them the advertising number and nothing else. - **Take access away on someone’s last day, not later.** It takes a few seconds and it is the step teams most often forget. - **Use a separate number for a group that should stay separate.** It is $49/month and it removes an entire class of mistake. ## Access and privacy questions ### Do my teammates need to share a password? No. Each teammate signs in with their own account, so there is no shared password to pass around or change when somebody leaves. It also means you can see exactly who has access, and remove one person without disturbing anyone else on the team. ### Can I remove someone’s access? Yes. An administrator can remove a person’s access at any time, and they stop being able to open the number’s messages. Because everyone signs in as themselves rather than sharing one login, removing one teammate changes nothing for the rest of the team and no password needs to be reset. ### Can my whole team see the same SMS? Yes. Every teammate you invite and give access to sees the messages that arrive at your company number, at the same time, in the same inbox. You decide who that is. Anyone who has not been given access to the number cannot see its messages at all. ### What happens if an employee leaves? Nothing breaks. The number belongs to the company account rather than to the person, so it does not leave with them. An administrator removes their access, and everyone else keeps receiving messages exactly as before. There is no shared password to change and no account to reconfigure in a hurry. ### Can we see older messages? Yes. Messages stay in the shared inbox so your team can look back at what arrived and when, and the inbox records activity so you can see who has been reading messages. Because these messages can contain login codes, the inbox does not keep them forever — see the security page for what is stored and for how long. ## Where to go next - [How it works](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/how-it-works) — Setting up access as part of the four steps. - [Shared phone number for teams](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/shared-phone-number-for-teams) — Why company ownership of the number is the thing that matters. - [Privacy](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/privacy) — What information we hold and why. ## Access you can explain to anyone A named list of people, changed in a few seconds, with a record of what happened. That is the whole model. - [Get your number](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com) _$49/month per phone number. No credit card required. Pay only when you choose your number._ --- Canonical: https://sharedsmsinbox.com/security Every page of this site is also available as Markdown. Site map: https://sharedsmsinbox.com/llms.txt